Creativitiy | Not How I Would Describe Myself

As a recruiter for lululemon, I work with creatives, learning about their passions and stories is the primary reason #joblove is not just a hashtag but a way of life. During interviews, I find myself immersed in designers’ craft and the inspirations that lead their art. For whatever reason, I’ve always believed the creative streak was innate and not a skill that could be learned. I’m drawn to the creatively gifted because I felt they had traits I didn’t possess.

I loath karaoke, my graphic designs leave a lot to be desired (circa 90s clipart anyone) and my art barely stands above the work of second graders. My friends know my strengths, my artistic incapabilities, and how my work falls in the space of expectation vs. reality. Thank you Pinterest for constantly making us feel inferior.

Imagine my anxiety when mndsight co-founder, Chrissy Abram, shared that the theme for April was going to be “creativity”. The thought of writing about it gave me a bit of anxiety.

Knowing I needed help, I turned to my husband as my first place to get perspective. What did creativity mean for him? We have a running joke between us about my lack of creativity when decorating our place or any form of design that intersects our life. Unexpectedly, he reminded me that creativity can show up in many different ways, not just in what I have perceived as a “creative” type. Where I was not creative in decorating our place or in feedback to marketing concepts for his business, he assured me that my creativity shined in areas where he wasn’t particularly capable or interested.

The conversation led me to explore what creativity meant for me. During my periods of mindfulness, I thought through where I spent time exploring ideas and concepts beyond my immediate reach and they all fell in topics I was immensely passionate about. Summing up my life quickly, I knew I was passionate in my career, my little girl, my sweat activities, my time with friends and my life experiences.

I spend time exploring ideas, researching, testing new methods, connecting with those with experience and envisioning while daydreaming. The process of creating and putting together disparate ideas just to experience a new slice of reality gets me excited. Little did I know, this whole time I’ve been creativiting - yup, thats a word. Wherever I’m passionate, my creativity flourishes. Let me tell you about a few ways creativity has exposed itself in my life...

I love feeding people so it's no surprise that my happy place is in my kitchen. I rarely follow recipes and usually just open the fridge and get inspiration from what's inside. My ethnic mix has afforded me a wide smorgasbord to play with and through trial and error, I’ve perfected some truly unique dishes that I can call my own. To me, its a type of art that I am proud to present to my family and love hearing from those I feed how the flavours meshed.

I pride myself in my random ideas and feel this is how creativity shows up in my life. During my wedding, with a tight budget and an exuberant desire to have an off the hook event, I successfully found a way to wear my $5K dream wedding dress for a quarter of the price and had sold it with an iron clad contract before I even wore it. Heck I have found creative ways to get out of parking tickets and getting refunds for non-refundable purchases - worthy of a blog article just for that.

I danced as a child and performed competitively until I was 19. I recently started up dancing again, no, not as a barstar but in hip hop dance classes. When I dance, my inner child comes out grinning; forgetting the woes and responsibilities of the day and being completely immersed in the dopamine inducing fun.

Yes, I am not going to paint, sculpt or compose anytime soon, but I am definitely going to get my child and husband to wear matching outfits to create lasting memories for our family.